


At The Broken Places

by Nevanna



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Episode: s02e20 Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls, Family, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-10-12 14:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10492665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevanna/pseuds/Nevanna
Summary: Weirdmageddon is over, but Fiddleford still has a few things to rebuild.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for Week Four of Fiddleford Appreciation Month, and requires full knowledge of the series. The title is from "Ride The Wind To Me" by Julie Miller.

Fiddleford doesn’t mean to eavesdrop on the Pines family meeting in the next room. He lets Mabel and Dipper’s chatter fade into background noise, but when one of their great-uncles interrupts them to ask about the “crackpot” who’s crashing around in the kitchen, there’s no mistaking the sound of his own name.

“Stanley, Fiddleford McGucket is a mechanical genius and an old friend,” Stanford says to his brother. “His inventions have helped us… more than once.”

“He turned the Mystery Shack into an awesome robot with gun-swords,” Soos adds. “Now I guess he’s helping turn it back into a house.”

Fiddleford reaches for his pliers. He’s been called worse things than “crackpot.” There were times when he didn’t even care.

By now, he knows how his memory gun destroyed the threat to their town, but he doesn’t know what they did with it afterward. There’s likely to be plenty of folk who wish that they could forget the last few days, and part of him will always understand that wish.

Even so, he hopes that everybody else can live without forgetting. Nobody else should have to go through what he once did.

\--

“I came to see if you needed help with anything.”

Fiddleford lifts his goggles and hops to his feet. “I’m doin’ just fine, thanks,” he tells Mabel. “Your oven should be good as new in no time. You sure you don’t want me to add a speech mechanism?”

Mabel giggles. “I think Grunkle Stan would just spend all day arguing with it.”

“Where’d he disappear to, anyway?” Fiddleford asks.

“He and Soos went for a drive down to the lake.” She’s watching him carefully. “I guess they needed a little father-son bonding time.” 

Fiddleford tugs at his beard. “Well, I’m happy for’em, then.” His own son came through Weirdmageddon alive and unharmed, but they haven’t managed a real conversation yet. The idea of being turned away again, after the world almost ended, doesn’t scare him quite as much as triangular chaos demons, but he isn’t exactly looking forward to it, either. “Your uncle’s mind is still under construction, too. I think he’s the one needs your help right now.” 

“How long did it take for you to get _your_ memories back?”

“If I’m gonna be honest with you,” Fiddleford says, “some of them still ain’t come back completely. Others don’t want to stay put, or else they’re all jumbled up.” Seeing Mabel’s face fall, he adds, “But Stanley’s got plenty of people who care about him and want to help, don’t he?”

“I guess he does,” Mabel agrees, beginning to smile again. “But so do you!”

“If you say so.” Maybe, sometime, Fiddleford will try to explain his fear that he could fall apart again, and find himself back in the town dump, without a clue how he ended up there or who he used to be.

Before she leaves the room, she tapes something to the refrigerator door. When he turns off his blowtorch and takes a closer look, it turns out to be an invitation to the twins’ thirteenth birthday party. She’s scrawled in one corner, in bright pink pen, _“I really hope the McGuckets can make it!!!”_

\--

At the party, Soos claps Fiddleford on the back, hard enough to make him stumble. “We’re still on for another anime night next Sunday, right, dude?” he asks. “How do you feel about robot lions that join to form a bigger robot? With a giant sword? In space?”

“Sign me right up!” Fiddleford cackles. 

Mabel hugs him tightly, both of her uncles shake his hand, and he even gets a few friendly smiles from the townsfolk who watched him design and build the Shacktron. As Mabel and Dipper stand up to address the crowd, he starts to believe that she may have been right.

When Tate joins the other guests, he catches his father’s eye and lifts his hand in greeting, and Fiddleford waves back.

When Mabel brings her foot down on the memory gun, smashing it to pieces, he feels like one more small part of his mind has healed at last.


End file.
